iPad 2 ship times improve to 1-3 days as Apple overcomes backlog

After more than fourth months on the market, Apple's iPad 2 appears to have nearly caught up with the staggering demand for it, as estimated shipping times on the company's U.S. online store have improved to just one to three business days.

The Cupertino, Calif., company reached near immediate availability for all models of its popular touchscreen tablet on Saturday, as noticed by MacNN. The lead times are an improvement upon last week's drop to three to five days.

Shortly after the device's launch in March, Apple was quoting shipping estimates of over a month. In April, the iPad 2 began shipping within one to two weeks, with Apple holding that timeframe steady until early July.

Analysts have viewed the improvements to availability as evidence that Apple has overcome supply constraints, rather than viewing the news as indicating slackening demand for the device. J.P. Morgan's Mark Moskowitz believes the resulting increase in iPad sales should help allay investor concerns that have contributed to recent volatility in shares of Apple.

Apple stock reached a new 52-week high of $364.92 on Friday ahead of its quarterly earnings call next Tuesday.

Despite the fact that Apple sold "every iPad [it] could make," analysts were disappointed in April when the company announced sales of just 4.69 million units last quarter. Wall Street had expected sales of 6.2 million.

"Demand has been staggering, and I'm not going to predict when supply and demand will come into balance, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said during the earnings call, adding that the iPad 2 is "the mother of all backlogs."

After more than fourth months on the market, Apple's iPad 2 appears to have nearly caught up with the staggering demand for it, as estimated shipping times on the company's U.S. online store have improved to just one to three business days.

The Cupertino, Calif., company reached near immediate availability for all models of its popular touchscreen tablet on Saturday, as noticed by MacNN. The lead times are an improvement upon last week's drop to three to five days.

Shortly after the device's launch in March, Apple was quoting shipping estimates of over a month. In April, the iPad 2 began shipping within one to two weeks, with Apple holding that timeframe steady until early July.

Analysts have viewed the improvements to availability as evidence that Apple has overcome supply constraints, rather than viewing the news as indicating slackening demand for the device. J.P. Morgan's Mark Moskowitz believes the resulting increase in iPad sales should help allay investor concerns that have contributed to recent volatility in shares of Apple.

Apple stock reached a new 52-week high of $364.92 on Friday ahead of its quarterly earnings call next Tuesday.

Despite the fact that Apple sold "every iPad [it] could make," analysts were disappointed in April when the company announced sales of just 4.69 million units last quarter. Wall Street had expected sales of 6.2 million.

"Demand has been staggering, and I'm not going to predict when supply and demand will come into balance, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said during the earnings call, adding that the iPad 2 is "the mother of all backlogs."

But if you believe the rumors there's an ipad 2.5 coming out anywhere from tomorrow to 2 months from now.

It makes perfect sense. When demand slows down for the current model, release an upgraded one.

I mean, they don't sell tons of models like the other guys do right?...

I'm not sure why people think they should make tons of these for the release so everyone can have one. They want constant demand. So if they built enough ahead of time, then they would have one great quarter and three bad ones right?

Their stock would go up like crazy, then plummet if every one who wanted one bought it right away. I think they found the right balance of keeping supply in constant demand enough for their earnings. I can't believe some people who post here thinking they only build so many because they can't build more. Even after reading post after post from this site, of potential partners who could build more of them when they're actually "needed". Really?...

It makes perfect sense. When demand slows down for the current model, release an upgraded one.

Nobody has said that demand has slowed down. That may or may not be the case.

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I mean, they don't sell tons of models like the other guys do right?...

Actually Apple is the only company selling tons of tablets.

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I'm not sure why people think they should make tons of these for the release so everyone can have one. They want constant demand. So if they built enough ahead of time, then they would have one great quarter and three bad ones right?

nope they would have happy customers. Despite all of the management mumbo jumbo it is pretty much impossible to predict demand for any product new on the market. However having the massive backlogs at launch like Apple had is not good for anybody.

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Their stock would go up like crazy, then plummet if every one who wanted one bought it right away.

That never happens anyway. This is the same in any industry, new models always result in a surge in sales assuming the public wants the item in the first place. The word "new" attracks the gotta have it peoPle.

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I think they found the right balance of keeping supply in constant demand enough for their earnings. I can't believe some people who post here thinking they only build so many because they can't build more.

If you commission to have a product built and pay for the production line, that line will have a maximum capacity. As such you can't build more until new lines are in place. So yeah Apple couldn't build more than the initial capacity that they purchased. This isn't rocket science.

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Even after reading post after post from this site, of potential partners who could build more of them when they're actually "needed". Really?...

You are reading about future potential partners none who have a production line set up yet. even if a contract is signed today the selected manufacture can not instantly start making iPads. Manufacturing simply doesn't work that way.

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This is only my opinion. Please don't jump down my throat. :o)

Well I'm jumping down your throat. Mainly because you appear to be delusional or have never worked in manufacturing. I'm working in a plant right now that is trying to expand production and frankly it is very hard work, nothing happens quickly.

Another way to look at this is that demand for iPad 2's has dropped and there are now a surplus of units, just saying..

We should have an idea in a couple of days as Apple does their quarterly reports. Some weakening in demand is to be expected, but that can pick up again later in the year. My impression is that demand is still strong.

We should have an idea in a couple of days as Apple does their quarterly reports. Some weakening in demand is to be expected, but that can pick up again later in the year. My impression is that demand is still strong.

Globally, there is no weakening in demand. It simply means that supply is gradually catching up. But if anyone thinks it's reaching any kind of supply-demand balance, they're way off.

We should have an idea in a couple of days as Apple does their quarterly reports. Some weakening in demand is to be expected, but that can pick up again later in the year. My impression is that demand is still strong.

The point I was making was as valid as the original poster, they have no idea if Apple is shipping more or selling less. Posts such as this are speculative and worthless, hence my post. It has as much value as you 'impression'.

The idea that Apple were deliberately producing iPads any less quickly than they possibly could is asinine.

Production efficiency has improved, and demand has slowed. That's the story.

I still feel like there's no way Apple could've predicted how much demand there was going to be for iPad 2 on launch day. Anecdotally speaking, I haven't seen people line up at Apple stores and the various retailers (Best Buy, Walmart etc) that much in quite a while, especially for a v2 revision product. To me this seemed like the iPhone 1 launch day. A bit crazy, maybe certifiable, people by the truckloads willing to bet that the iThing of the day was gonna be a smash hit.

I think the iPad 1 as it turns out was actually good advertising for the iPad 2. There's still the sortof common wisdom out there that you don't buy a v1 Apple product. You wait a revision or 2 for them to work out the kinks. iPad 1 didn't really have any kinks, a few software related tech issues (I remember an annoying dropped wifi issue at the start) but it was stuff that got resolved and was just a blip. I think the solidness and maturity of the first iPad gave people alot of confidence that the iPad 2 really was going to be great on day 1, and this contributed (among many other factors) to a kindof insane launch. And they just have not been able to catch up since.

The Jobsnote at the time talked about how they planned to launch in the US on one day, then 2 weeks later be in 20 countries and then 2 weeks after that be in like 40 more (I'm sure I got these details wrong but it was something very aggressive). I wonder now in retrospect how realistic that was... I can't imagine that they actually made that schedule given how constrained supply has been.

if by iPad-3 you mean the rumoured HD option then I think you're missing the point. Why wait for the competition to get into your market when you can crush them before they even get a toehold? You could just as easily say why did they need to bring out the iPad-2 when they did, after all nobody had a decent offering to rival it at the time.

Apple will bring out their new models at their own pace, and there's no reason for them to hold back just because the product is selling well - that has certainly never stopped them in the past.

Retail sales rise and fall in all world regions depending on many factors, e.g. holiday periods etc and even the time of the month causing natural drops and increases in demand.

The point I'm trying to make is that we haven't even reached any "natural" fluctuations in demand. Think of it as a extremely full dam, all that demand is there, with the dam outlet being the supply of iPads easing the water level in the dam. Yes, in a normal situation the rain and river causes the dam level to fluctuate. But we're in a scenario where apple is trying to increase the flow out of the dam (ie increase iPad production and supply), but the dam is still very full (pent-up demand) and there's more water coming into the dam (more people want iPad as they learn more about it and as desire grows).

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Originally Posted by tonton

The idea that Apple were deliberately producing iPads any less quickly than they possibly could is asinine.

Production efficiency has improved, and demand has slowed. That's the story.

Hi Tonton, I agree with the first part but respectfully disagree on the second. Production has improved, but demand remains extremely high, and there remains a very high number of countries where Macs are sold with no reliable daily in-store supply of iPads.

We all have to remember that Apple generally has "Ships in 24 hours" on the online store. Reaching that is the first point where we can begin to imagine demand is being met. Even if that happens, remember that's the online store only. Globally you have almost 400 official Apple Stores, and then you have many, many more Apple-specific resellers in most countries where Macs are regularly sold. Not to mention the next tier of third-party resellers like Sears, Best Buy, Harvey Norman (Asia Pacific).

Globally you have almost 400 official Apple Stores, and then you have many, many more Apple-specific resellers in most countries where Macs are regularly sold. Not to mention the next tier of third-party resellers like Sears, Best Buy, Harvey Norman (Asia Pacific).

And then there are online Apple stores -- for example, in the UK iPad shipping times are still 3 to 5 days.